In a small meeting room of a feminist organization RabatAbout thirty people attend a conference in large numbers to talk and discuss the topic. Moroccan Family Code. He’s talking about divorce, underage marriage, polygamy, heritage, extramarital affairs, single mothersand many more topics that all participants had in common: “You need to change this text from top to bottom“, points out one of them. “We also need to change the philosophy and especially the language,” says another assistant.
Morocco faces crucial months to outline what its Family Law reform will look like. Since that time Muhammad VI In his speech in June last year, he opened the door to the redefinition of this law. Feminist organizations mobilized to put all their demands on the table. There is a general sense of hope among these organizations, but they also remain skeptical, knowing that all their demands will be difficult to meet. For now, no one knows what changes will be considered; The draft is planned to be submitted in March.
‘This will be the second time’Mudavana‘, known as the Family Code in Morocco. It was revised in 2004, which was an important step because changes were added to a text that had hitherto been considered “sacred”. For example, It has become easier for a woman to divorce her husbandEven though he denies it, for most it is something that points to a before and after. This was a reform that was met with strong opposition. conservatives And Islamists. Nineteen years later, feminist organizations fear that these movements will try to boycott any change.
Rghizlaine Benacir, one of the founders of the Jossour Moroccan Women’s Forum, joined the reform in 2004. “Then we said to ourselves: We will demand the minimum wage. There was intense pressure from conservatives. It was a completely different context than today. For example, in 2004 there was no mention of inheritance; We told ourselves: We will do everything step by step.” But almost 20 years later, the demands and the context have changed: “Today we want a complete reform of the Family CodeAt every level, it’s not about changing commas, periods, or a small article: You have to redo the whole thing,” Benachir claims.
Divorce
Ghizele Moumoni, a lawyer by profession and president of the Kif Mama association, became active in feminism after her divorce: “It was an unbearable moment when I discovered the inequalities in the Family Code“Since then, I have not stopped condemning this and demanding that the laws change,” he says. He explains that current legislation recognizes this right in the case of divorce. 100% custody belongs to the fathersuch as choosing the school to enroll in or being able to travel abroad, but Custody is given to the mother, a person who cares for the child permanently. The father has visitation rights only once a week.
If the mother wants to remarry, custody of the children automatically passes to the father. “It is a perversion and extreme legal violence against the child.A person who leaves the person with custody seven days a week to go exclusively to the other parent places the burden on the mother to establish the right of visitation for not more than one day. It is very harmful to the child,” explains Moumoni. Both guardianship and custody should involve fathers and mothers equally and place sons and daughters at the centre.
child marriage
Another fundamental demand of organizations defending human rights is the ban on marriage of children under the age of 18, without exception. The 2004 Family Code increased the minimum age for marriage from 15 to 18; but there was an exception in the text: If one of the spouses is underage, the judge may allow the wedding to take place.. “What happened is that this exception has become the rule and almost all applications are accepted. In 2022 we had almost 14,000 marriage permits for minors, which is a huge number. This exception did not work“, complains Moumoni.
Most of these marriages are between teenagers and older men and take place in rural settings. “Twenty years of practice have shown us that there are deviations in practice and that It is necessary to eradicate them and ban marriage for people who are not yet 18 years old. You can’t vote, you can’t do a lot of things before you’re 18. Why can we get married? There is no reason for this,” argues the lawyer and activist.
The demands of these organizations go much further, they also demand the abolition of punitive laws. sexual relations outside of marriage or adultery. They believe that punishing this would put the woman in danger and prevent her from reporting it to the police if she was sexually assaulted or raped. According to these organizations, if a woman cannot prove that she is a victim of rape or assault, the law may turn against her and the police may initiate an investigation against her on the grounds that she had sexual intercourse without marriage.